OK fellow Single in January Challengers...... I have the layout pretty well settled. All the photos are centered on a white page. I went with a simple clean lay out to let the images speak without any need for words. After all, we're all photographers.....not writers (or in my case....aspiring). But still, when we have this beautiful book lying about on our coffee table and someone picks it up and starts looking through it, they may want to know who shot what......or possibly what camera and lens were used. Maybe they'll even be curious who's behind the screen name. Are there titles for your photos? Is it important to you? We have several pages in the back of the book (or maybe it'll be a table of contents at the beginning.....I haven't really decided.......I may try it both ways and see what looks better)

Here's a screenshot of the Blurb bookmaking software. This example is my 2 page spread. You will all have a spread where your 2 images share the limelight. Mine are both both square format so they kinda fill the page, but others will have white bars above and below or on the sides, but you get the idea. The only other thing on the page is a page number at lower left of the left hand page. This is so people can reference the credits page. So, I need you all to send me one more email to Luke.seriouscompacts@gmail.com . It should include whatever info you want to be in the book. I'll give some examples for my photos.....going from least amount of info to the most.View attachment 52221Untitled by Lukinosity (not around much..... too much work), on Flickr

I don't know if there's anything I haven't thought of. We have 30 people and just a few pages to allocate for credits so while you may have a lot to say about your images, I think they speak for themselves. Feel free to say all you want, though......if we can't make it fit, I'll let you know. So, what we need to know is what and how you want to be credited. Do you just want your name and page numbers? Do you prefer your screen name or would you like to share a real world name (or tell us to use both...please)......do you want titles displayed for your works or would you like the viewer to just use their imagination? A lot of us are camera geeks, but the general populace is not. Will you share your gear selection with us or do you think it's more the eye, than the shutter? I can also grab the EXIF info and add that, too.....why not? Let me know what you want. And finally, you worked hard and are entitled to reap some rewards from this. Maybe someone will see this and fall in love with your photo.....maybe they want to buy it to hang in a gallery. Maybe their wife loves it and she just inherited an oil baron's estate. She'd like to give you $1,000,000.00, but she can't find you. This is where we put a we address to your flickr account, or a photo blog, or an email address or a simple "the photographer would like to remain anonymous". Whatever you want, tell me about it.

I'm a little worried that I've left this too vague, but I don't want it to look like I just emailed you all a 3 part form to fill out. The book is sparse to let the images shine, but we do need to let people know who created these beautiful images. If you have any question, let me know. Now start typing. And seriously.....you can keep it simple (or make it as detailed) as you want. Thanks for helping me make this book.

I don't mind how the credits go.. (real name, username, whatever) but I think it would be nice to have a flickr link. I dont think its necessary to have the camera info and titles etc, but others may disagree, of course

In my mail I told Luke that I don't have a strong preference, but that I personally saw no need for titles or equipment. In case the decision was made to use titles and/or equipment, I did provide him with that. I do like a real name and a link to a site. But can live with any other option.

Sorry it it wasn't clear. I don't think we would ever come up with a consensus about what info was necessary for everyone as a whole. So I will list what every individual wants.

Some may just want the cloak of anonymity and nothing else...that's fine. Some way want to use their real name...that's fine. Some may want to let everyone know what camera they were using...we can do that. Are titles an important part of your work...we'll include them.

Send whatever info you want included and we'll include it. And it's natural to call them links....and we'll be happy to add them....but in a traditional book, they don't really "link" to anything....you can't click on them So we'll call them web adresses.

May I humbly suggest that we have a uniform look on the pages with the photo themselves? In my opinion, it would look weird to have some pages with lots of info, and some pages with bare bone or no info.

So how about just having minimal information on the pages with the photo themselves, and place all the information we want at the end (or beginning) of the book? In other words, just have the name of photographer and page number on the pages with the photos. Then at the end (or beginning) of the book, depending on what the photographer wants, have his/her screen name, real name, Flickr/500 address, website address, phone number, favorite ice cream flavor, gear, EXIF, or whatever else, and of course, a reference to the page number of the book.

Armanius is spot on. Visually, the photo should stand almost alone on the page; I would stylise and simply go with

title | forum name | photographer name

...and no more on the page. An index should give equipment, inside leg measurement, web link or whatever but should, I think be restricted to a set format and kept to one line of info, maybe add to the above:

camera | lens | ISO | exposure || web link/contact details

Keep it simple, keep it consistent, keep it stylised.

That's what I think, anyway. Any more is making work for yourself and will look messy.

I'm with Armanius and Lightmancer on this. Keep the photo pages simple and consistent and add more detailed credits at the back. I'd even simplify further ie; title and name only. May be worth starting a thread containing all the photos that do not already have a title so that people can offer up suggestions and the photographer making the call.

Oh, I'm with you all on keeping it simple. I've gone to the farthest extreme in fact. If you look at the screenshot you will see the example with my 2 shots. This is what the finished product will look like. No text cluttering up the page. Merely a small page number at lower left (and only on the left hand page). And I only conceded the page number to aid in identifying the credits.

I tried a couple other layouts with simple text added and frankly it was just giving up too much real estate that is better used for the photos themselves. Because the photos are all different aspect ratios and orientations, to have a standardized placement of the text, meant conceding some part of the page to white space to leave room for the text. The book itself is only 7 inches square. The photos don't go all the way to the edge of the page. The difference between having a little bit of simple text or the minimalist approach I have taken is akin to the old choice I would get at the drugstore having my film developed..... 3 x 5 or 4 x 6. Bigger wins.

If you have any more questions or concerns, feel free to discuss them. I am doing this solo and it's my first one. So it's possible I haven't thought everything through. But I have spent hours looking through photo books to see what works and what doesn't work. This one is looking good. But that is definitely more to your skills as photographers than mine as a bookmaker.

Luke, if I read you correctly, each person's images are going to occupy two facing pages ... so, just to make things even more complicated for you, can we specify which of our images are to be on the left and which on the right ?

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